Ch. 27: Soy un Hijo de Dios

Chapter 27: Soy un Hijo de Dios

I have never particularly enjoyed knocking doors. Maybe it´s something to do with the door-slamming, spitting, yelling. I am not sure. Instead, I find that my time is better used working with members, less active families, and part member families, with a hint of street contacting on the side. However, in our district meeting this week, our District Leader asked us to knock doors. Honestly, I just rolled my eyes. You have got to be kidding. But, being the obedient little missionary that I am, we decided to find some time to knock some doors this week. However, we were going to do it a different way. My companion and I were thinking of a way that we could knock on doors that would have a better result than the usual, "I don´t have any interest." Finally I exclaimed, "If only we could go Christmas Caroling!! Everyone loves caroling!!" And then it hit us. We decided to go Gospel Caroling! haha Now, we realized that the only logical reason we must be companions is that she loves to sing Alto, and I am a Soprano. Obviously this is what God had instore for us. 

And so commenced our week of Gospel Caroling. 

The challenge with knocking doors is you have to find a way into the building. Usually, we just stalk a street and wait for someone to come in our out of a building, and then sprint up behind them, and slyly sneak into the closing door. So, we were moving forward with our plans when we were sneaking in behind this onery Spaniard, scrawny man of about 60 years old who hissed us, "psh, mormones!!" and glared at us all the way down the street. Eh, I didn´t really care. He walked out of an apartment building full of apartments, so it was like Christmas morning. So we began at the top floor and nobody was home!! We had made it down about 2 floors when we realized there is nobody home and I just thought we were wasting our time. Then while we were on the 4th floor, we were just lifting our hands to ring the door bell when the elevator doors open, and Mr. Sunshine that we had met on the street walks through. Oh. No. hahaha. My companion just looked up at me with huge eyes, and I just bursted out, "Hi we´re missionaries...." and he just shouted, " I know who you are and get out of here!!" Usually, I would have scattered off, but I felt impressed to stay this time. I said, "Sir, We would like to share a song with you." He was going off on something, and stopped mid sentence, looked up at us and muttered, "Huh? You want to do what??" "Sir, we would like to sing a song for you."

So we sang Soy un Hjio de Dios (I am a Child of God)

I have never seen a man completely change in a period of a 30 second song like that moment. After we concluded the song, he looked up at us, and said, "Usually when I see your kind (felt a little bit like an animal at this moment) all you want to do is shove your bible in people´s faces. Never have I heard anyone try to sing..." So, we kept talking with him about Spain and the beautiful cities, our families, and so forth. He asked us about a couple of our beliefs, and I think he was taken back with how open we were to his ideas, and we would just mix it into our ideas! haha For example, he said you just believe in your bible, right? and we said, "Yes! We do! We also have a Book called the Book of Mormon, and if you read them both, you can come to know your Savior more." We knew that´s not what he meant, but we had him hooked! His name is Mygl (Miguel) and he is progressing towards baptism for the beginning of next month. But, the miracle doesn´t end there. As we were walking away, his Apartment door opens (we had been standing in the entry this whole time) and his piso companion (someone you share the rent with) comes and out tells us, "Who are you? I don´t know what church your from, but I would like to come with you this Sunday. I am from Brazil, and I was praying that someone would come by and help me find a church. As soon as I ended my prayer, I heard you singing in the entry." So, both of them are really open and learning a lot. The rest of the week we continued our tactics of asking if we could share a song instead of a message. We now have more investigators than the Elders combined, not to brag, because we know it all came from God. But still. It´s amazing what can happen with a little song!! :) One of our new investigators is name Hussan. He is...well...he´s an interesting one. haha He is from Morrocco, and born Muslim. He is the most open person I think I have ever met. He really wants to know about the Book of Mormon and our church. The appointment we had with him was a little strange though. There we were, teaching him a lesson just about Jesus Christ. We felt it was important that he develop a Faith in Christ first. Then, his piso companion comes in and she is a staunch Catholic, a staunch, bitter, Catholic. So let me just paint this image for you. We are teaching this Muslim who wants to be Christian (he says he believes Christ is divine and the Koran is wrong and that he doesn´t want to be affiliated with that religion anymore), she is trying to convice him that we are up to no good and just want to baptize him, and he is telling her that he wants to change religions and he wants to know if this one is right with a cigarette in his right hand and a glass of wine in the other. Oh my goodness. haha the kind of things you find knocking doors. Well, I am sure all his lessons are going to be an adventure! My next task is to find a Book of Mormon for him in Arabic so he can better understand. He says Spanish is his third language and really wants to know the truth. What a crazy week!! I am really excited to see where our new investigators go, and I think I will take the advice of my friend from Finding Nemo:

Just keep "singing", just keep "singing". 

Les Quiero!!

Hermana Hopkins